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New FCC rules that took effect on January 13, 2025, will now permit local FM radio stations to create geotargeted zones by originating content, including advertising for qualified political candidates.
This change in rules means that local radio stations can become far more competitive as a means for political candidates to reach the voters they need in the media spaces where they spend their time.
In effect, an FM station can simulcast its single-frequency network of boosters with the main signal for full market coverage, or it can create hyperlocal zones defined by the coverage areas of each booster and originate different content on each booster. Using these zones, stations can offer a candidate running in one corner of a radio market zoned advertisements that broadcast primarily in the area where that candidate’s voters live. In addition to being more focused, stations will also be able to offer these zoned advertisements at a distinct Lowest Unit Rate (LUR) from the full-market advertisements the stations have been able to offer.
Here’s an example of how it works. A San Jose FM station worked with GeoBroadcast Solutions to create two zones with its booster network: San Francisco and East Bay. Separate news, weather, traffic, PSAs, and commercial spots ran in each zone. Jack in the Box and Dentsu participated in this FM geotargeting demonstration and were pleased with the results.
This paper describes geotargeting for political campaigns and briefly summarizes how geotargeting works.
Political Candidates Can Geotarget with Radio to Increase Impact and Reduce Waste
When a federal, state, or local political candidate wants to use radio advertising in their media mix but their district occupies only one portion of a radio station’s listening area, spending can be concentrated there without the waste of reaching radio listeners not eligible to vote in the zone where they live. This targeting makes political spending more cost-effective and will help candidates better reach their actual voters.
Political Campaigns: Harness Geotargeted Radio for Optimal Reach and Efficiency
Legally qualified candidates are favored for their broadcast TV and radio advertising. Radio stations must comply with the FCC’s political advertising rules, including guaranteed LUR charges 45 days before a primary election and 60 days before a general election. This rule means candidates can benefit from volume discounts typically available only to bigger advertisers without the need to buy the same volume of ads.
Radio stations need not have only one lowest unit rate; most don’t. According to the FCC, the lowest unit rate applies to each class of time in each radio station daypart. Stations might have dozens of lowest unit rates depending on the class of time.
FM Geotargeting on Boosters Adds a New Class of Time for Political Candidates
The new twist is that for FM stations originating content on their booster network, each booster is seen as its own facility by the FCC. Specifically, the FCC amended Section 74.1290 of the Rules, “…to make all political programming requirements explicitly applicable to program originating FM booster stations… [and] will treat each booster as a separate facility from its primary station for purposes of compliance with the political programming rules.”
The amended FCC rules permit stations flexibility in arranging files and maintaining and labeling political advertising for qualified candidates. Still, they must ensure that qualified candidates have access to information that may trigger their rights and offer transparency to the public.
How FM Geotargeting Works
FM geotargeting works on all existing FM receivers. Listeners do not need to do anything but enjoy more relevant content. For FM broadcasters, they have the option to activate FM geotargeting by utilizing GeoBroadcast’s innovative SFN technology for FM boosters.
The graphic below shows a simple visualization of how FM geotargeting can work. The large blue circle represents the full authorized coverage area of the FM station. In this example, the station can originate content on its Single Frequency Network of FM boosters to four geotargeted zones: North, West, South, and East. Content can be originated for several minutes per hour from each booster zone. During a stop set of four 30-second commercial spots, actually five different spots can run simultaneously. During this 2-minute break, each zone can run its own unique spots, and the main signal can run yet another spot for the parts of the coverage area not served by one of the zones. All listeners receive content either from the main transmitters or zone transmitters.
What FM Geotargeting Means for Stations and Candidates
All the usual political advertising rules apply to FM stations offering advertising to qualified political candidates. For example, Mon-Fri AM Drive Time will likely be a specific class of time that may have a different Lowest Unit Rate than midday.
A political candidate trying to use radio to reach constituents only in the North and West zones of a station signal range would have to pay the LUR that applies to the entire market for stations without geotargeting. However, for stations with geotargeting, the candidate would pay the applicable LUR for the North and West zones, which likely will be cheaper than the full market rate.
There is a corollary benefit for stations selling geotargeted political ads: they will have a new lowest unit rate ad class to serve political candidates’ needs better and generate higher overall political ad revenue.
Here’s an example for a station selling three geotargeted zone. If the lowest unit rate for a particular ad class is $100 for the full market, each zone could have its own LUR of, say, $40. For campaigns buying just one zone, that’s a savings of 60%. But for stations selling all three zones, that’s $120 in revenue for a spot versus $100 for a 20% revenue lift to the station.
Geotargeting stations can sell either the applicable LUR full market rate to qualified candidates or offer geotargeting that can lower candidate costs for radio advertising if they just need to reach hyperlocal and not full market geography. Those savings can then be applied to buying more radio time in the geotargeted areas to increase campaign reach and frequency goals and drive listener response more effectively.
GeoBroadcast Solutions is working with over a dozen FM stations in 10 markets to roll out FM geotargeting with plans to scale this rollout during 2025. To learn more about this opportunity, contact [email protected] or click here.